The tinyness has had cold/cough/sore throat symptoms in varying degrees for almost 2 months now. We've been to the doctor's 3 times in that span, without coming up with any revelations. She has had thick brownish snot oozing for the last 5 days. She seems fine otherwise, but the never-ending cold is worrying me. What is the longest cold your kids have been through? Is there anything I should be concerned about?

Longest cold? I dunno, about a year? Seriously. The Dragon was the runniest kid I'd ever seen. Then we cut out dairy (except yogurt) and voila! That was it. He still gets colds, but they don't linger and linger and linger like they did.

Also, has she recently started daycare? That's when it *really* increased in frequency for our guy.

This winter it seemed like every month himself was down with something new. Or he brought it home and I got it. The last round started with a sore throat, went to full no-voice, and then continued with a cough that lasted another few weeks. I don't think there is much they can do about it since you can't dose them up with Buckley's (which I was swigging to keep the cough away blech!) Usually they worry if the snot is green or coming up in the cough. If not, just keep wiping down all contact surfaces, clean any toys she plays with and get lots of rest and fluids.

Brownish snot could mean a bacterial nasal infection. Maybe the original cold irritated her sinuses enough to trigger an infection.

Lord knows it's happened in my nose often enough. But I'm not a doc, so don't take my word for it.

We went two months with a cold here (Nov-Dec). Doc said it was normal, and that one possibility was that just as he was starting to feel better from the first cold some kid brought a new germ into day care. The never ending snot. Boy, that was cute.

If she's had it for that long, keep getting her to the doctor so they can make sure it doesn't develop into bronchitis or pneumonia. (that's what our ped told us when little B had a two month cold.) Get a second opinion if you can.

If you're not opposed to natural medicine, try taking her to a naturopath. B and the little Miss have never been antibiotics thanks to ours.